Last updated: August 15th, 2025
CONTENTS
3. Children under the age of 13
4. Information We Collect About You and How We Collect It
5. Cookie Removal and More Information
6. How We Use Your Information
7. How We Disclose and Transfer Your Information
8. Transferring Your Personal Information
10. Sale/Share of Your Information
11. How We Store, Retain and Secure Your Information
12. Accessing and Correcting Your Information and Withdrawing Your Consent
Introduction: This is the privacy policy of Ascendance US Inc., a Delaware corporation, doing business as Expop (“Expop”, “we”, “us”, “our”). We are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This policy describes the types of personal information we may collect from you or that you may provide when you use the Expop platform at expop.io (“Platform”), compete in The Start-Up Challenge by Expop (the “Challenge”) and engage with the content therein (the “Services”), as well as our practices for collecting, using, maintaining, protecting, and disclosing that information. “Personal information” (sometimes referred to as “personal data” or “personally identifiable information”) means any information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household.
This policy, which is incorporated into our Terms of Use by reference, applies to personal information we collect on our Platform, in email, other electronic messages between you and the Platform, in the course of utilizing our Services, and by participating in the Challenge. Please read this policy carefully to understand our policies and practices regarding your personal information and how we will treat it. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, your choice is not to use our Website. By accessing or using this Platform, these Services, and by participating in the Challenge, you agree to this privacy policy and, where required by law, consent to our processing personal information in the United States and under its laws.
While we do our best to protect your personal information, the transmission of information via the Internet is not completely secure and Expop cannot guarantee and does not warrant the security of any information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk. In essence, you must protect yourself. You are responsible for maintaining the secrecy of any password and/or account information. Please be careful and responsible whenever you are online, especially when using a computer that other people can use also or if you are on an unsecured network.
This policy may change from time to time. Your continued use of this Platform, the Services, and participation in the Challenge after we make changes is deemed to be acceptance of those changes, so please check the policy periodically for updates.
Changes to this Policy: Please note that we may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our privacy practices by providing you with notice of the change. Notice includes but is not restricted to posting a link to the new Privacy Policy, posting a new Privacy Policy on the Platform, or sending you a link to the new Privacy Policy via contact information you have provided to us. Such change will be effective with respect to your use of the Services after we have given you notice of the change. Please review the Privacy Policy periodically to see whether it has changed. Any use of the Platform or Services by you, or continue participation in the Challenge, after we provide notice to you constitutes your acceptance of those modifications.
Children under the age of 13: Our Platform, Services, and Challenge are not intended for children under 13 years of age. No one under age 13 may provide any personal information to the Platform. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you are under 13, do not use or provide any information on this Platform, through our Services, or participate in the Challenge or otherwise provide any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, email address, or any screen name or user name you may use. If we learn we have collected or received personal information from a child under 13 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information. If you believe we might have any information from or about a child under 13, please contact us at data@expop.io.
Information We Collect About You and How We Collect It: Upon registration and during the Challenge, Expop will collect certain personal information from participants. This information may include:
Your name, date of birth, email address, school or affiliation, grade level, country of residence, and contact information for you and/or your parent or guardian.
Unique personal identifies, such as online identifiers, usernames, or account names.
Your age.
Education level.
We may also collect payment information, such as:
Names of payors, credit card information, expiration dates, billing addresses, etc.
We may also collect records and copies of your correspondence (including email addresses) if you contact us, your search queries on the Platform, and when you report a problem on our Platform, with our services, or with regards to the Challenge.
We also collect information that you provide as part of the Challenge activities, such as:
Personal information included in project submissions, pitch decks, business idea descriptions, survey responses, or other materials you create. Additionally, we may record video or audio of Challenge sessions, workshops, presentations, or events, which could capture your image, likeness, or voice, as set out in our Terms.
We collect this personal information directly from you when you provide it to us, and automatically as you navigate through the Platform, Services, and participate in the Challenge. Information collected automatically may include browser or device identifiers, usage details, physical/geolocation or network location information, IP addresses, and information collected through cookies. We do not collect personal information automatically, but we may tie non-personal information collected automatically to personal information about you that we collect from other sources or that you provide to us. This helps us improve our Platform and Services and to deliver a better and more personalized service by allowing us to:
Estimate our audience size and usage patterns.
Learn about your preferences, allowing us to customize our Platform and Services to your individual interests.
Speed up your searches, Platform, and Service performance.
Recognize you when you return to our Platform.
The technologies we use for this automatic data collection may include:
Cookies (or browser cookies): A cookie is a small file placed on the hard drive of your computer. You may refuse to accept browser cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our Website. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you direct your browser to our Website.
Web Beacons: Pages of our Platform and Services may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags, and single-pixel gifs) that permit Expop, for example, to count users who have visited those pages and for other related statistics (for example, recording the popularity of certain content and verifying system and server integrity).
You also may provide information to be published or displayed (hereinafter, "posted") on public areas of the Platform, or transmitted to other users of the Platform or third parties (collectively, "User Contributions"). Your User Contributions are posted on and transmitted to others at your own risk. Although we may limit access to certain features, please be aware that no security measures are perfect or impenetrable. Additionally, we cannot control the actions of other users of the Platform with whom you may choose to share your User Contributions. Therefore, we cannot and do not guarantee that your User Contributions will not be viewed by unauthorized persons.
Cookie Removal and More Information: You can always modify your browser so as not to accept cookies or to notify you when cookies are sent to it. For more information about cookies including removing any or all your cookies, please visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org.
Also, if you would like to remove the Google Analytics and DoubleClick cookies, please go to http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout and http://www.google.com/ads/preferences/plugin/ respectively. You should be aware that this will affect your Google cookies on all sites, and not just ours.
How We Use Your Information: The personal information we collect is used for purposes of administering and delivering the Platform, Services, and Challenge. This includes:
To present the Platform and its contents to you, and provide the Services.
To fulfill the purposes for which you provided the information or that were described when it was collected, or any other purpose for which you provide it.
To carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts with you, including for billing and collection or to comply with legal requirements.
To improve our Platform, Services, the Challenge, marketing, or customer relationships and experiences.
Verifying eligibility (e.g., age and parental consent) for the Challenge, grouping teams or assigning mentors, contacting participants with updates, judging entries, awarding prizes, improving program content, and notifying you about changes to our Platform, Services, and Challenge.
In any other way we may describe when you provide the information.
For any other purpose with your consent in connection with your usage of the features or functionality of the Platform, Services and Challenge as set forth in the Terms.
This also includes:
Providing you with notices about your account, subscription, expiration and renewal notices. Information collected may also be used to carry out our contractual obligations and enforce our rights arising from any agreements between you and Expop, including billing and collection.
We may use contact information (email, phone) to communicate with you about Platform, Service, and Challenge matters and upcoming opportunities.
School information may be used to ensure diverse representation and to verify student status.
Recorded sessions may be made available to other participants for educational review, for promotion purposes of future Services and Challenges and programs organized by Expop or used by Expop for internal training and quality assurance.
Providing summaries of certain participant progress/engagement, submission deadlines, schedules to participants’ teachers and schools that are organizing or overseeing their students’ participation (e.g. if a school or teacher organizes their students’ participation in the Challenge, they may be provided with summaries of their students’—and only their students—engagement, deadlines for submissions, and upcoming activities in order to facilitate the students’, schools'and teacher’s participation).
Disclosing de-identified personal information to educational partners, sponsors, and investors in client pitches in the course of expanding the Platform, Services, and Challenge.
Other uses include:
Operational uses: To administer our site, site performance, and internal operations, such as to conduct troubleshooting, testing, and projecting usage volume and impact.
Security Purposes: To keep our site safe and secure and to control access to your account and services.
Advertising: To deliver relevant advertising to you and to measure and optimize the effectiveness of our advertising.
Optimization: To ensure our content, layout, and offerings are presented in the most effective manner for you and your devices.
Research: To better understand our subscribers, potential subscribers, and visitors so we can improve our Platform, Services, and Challenge, and better target how we deliver information about those products and services.
How We Disclose and Transfer Your Information:
We may disclose aggregated information about our users and information that does not identify any individual without restriction.
We may also disclose information that we collect, or you provide as described in this policy:
To our subsidiaries and affiliates.
To contractors, service providers, and other third parties we use to support our business, and who are bound by contractual obligations to keep personal information confidential and use it only for the purposes for which we disclose it to them.
To fulfill the purpose for which you provide it. For example, if you give us an email address to use the "email a friend" feature of our Platform, we will transmit the contents of that email and your email address to the recipients.
For any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information.
With your consent.
We may also disclose your personal information:
To comply with any court order, law, or legal process, including to respond to any government or regulatory request.
To enforce or apply our terms of use, and other agreements, including for billing and collection purposes. This may include exchanging information with other companies and organizations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction
In accordance with applicable law, to a buyer or other successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of our assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by us about our customers and users is among the assets transferred
Transferring Your Personal Information
We may transfer personal information that we collect or that you provide as described in this policy to contractors, service providers, and other third parties we use to support our business (such as analytics and search engine providers that assist us with Website improvement and optimization) and who are contractually obligated to keep personal information confidential, use it only for the purposes for which we disclose it to them, and to process the personal information with the same standards set out in this policy.
We may process, store, and transfer your personal information in and to a foreign country, with different privacy laws that may or may not be as comprehensive as those in your jurisdiction. In these circumstances, the governments, courts, law enforcement, or regulatory agencies of that country may be able to obtain access to your personal information through the laws of the foreign country. Whenever we engage a service provider, we require that its privacy and security standards adhere to this policy and applicable privacy legislation.
Tracking and Analytics: We use industry-standard tracking tools to improve our website, understand user behavior, and deliver personalized advertising. This includes services provided by Google and Meta (Facebook). By accessing or using this Platform, these Services, and by participating in the Challenge, you agree to this privacy policy and consent to our processing data in the United States and under its laws. Below is how these tools are used on our website:
Google Analytics: We use Google Analytics to analyze and improve user experience on our website. This includes collecting data such as:
Pages you visit and the amount of time spent on each.
General location (City, Country) based on your IP address.
Device type (mobile, desktop, tablet).
Browser and operating system used.
How you engage with our content (e.g., clicks, scrolls, session duration).
How you arrived at our site (e.g., search engine, referral, social media, direct link).
This information is anonymized and does not personally identify you.
Meta Pixel (Facebook Pixel): We use the Meta Pixel to track website activity for advertising and remarketing purposes:
To identify when a user reaches a “Thank You” or confirmation page (conversion tracking).
To recognize users who visited the site but did not complete an action, so we can show relevant ads later (retargeting).
To create lookalike audiences and custom interest groups using anonymous behavioral data.
Google Tag Manager & Google Ads: These tools are used to manage website tags and track ad performance:
Monitoring actions like form submissions and purchases (conversion tracking).
Identifying users who left the site without completing key actions (retargeting).
Segmenting audiences to improve the relevance of our ads based on behavior.
Your Choices: You have control over your data and can opt out of certain non-essential tracking or ad personalization:
Google Analytics: Opt-out browser add-on
Google Ads personalization: https://url.us.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/0ySbC9r7QkfkJ7Z7DIofvhqsWLE?domain=adssettings.google.com
Meta Ads preferences: https://url.us.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/gvzkC0RyVWSGnPEPphDhWh9bDaa?domain=facebook.com
You may also limit tracking by adjusting your browser settings, using private browsing modes, or installing ad blockers.
How We Store, Retain and Secure Your Information:
We retain personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill any legal obligations we may have as well as for purposes of processing your personal information for the delivery of our Platform, Services, and Challenge (for example, if you continue to subscribe to one of our email-based services, we will need your information to email the service to you). We may also retain aggregated and anonymized information beyond this time for research purposes and to help us develop and improve our Platform, Services, and Challenge. You cannot be identified from aggregate and anonymized information retained or used for these purposes.
We are committed to protecting your personal information. All information that you provide to us is stored on our secure servers. Access to our Platform and Services is password-protected for your privacy and security. While we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk. What does all this mean? Just as in the investing world, you must protect yourself. You are responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your passwords and/or any account information.
Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted to our site; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your personal information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration, or disclosure.
Our Platform and Services may, from time to time, contain links to external sites. We are not responsible for the privacy policies or the content of such sites. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow the third party to collect or share personal information about you. If you follow a link to a third-party website or engage a third-party plugin, please note that these third parties have their own privacy policies and we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. We do not control these third-party websites, and we encourage you to read the privacy policy of every website you visit.
Accessing and Correcting Your Information and Withdrawing Your Consent: You can review and change your personal information by logging into the Platform and visiting your account profile page.
Depending on the jurisdiction you reside, you may have the legal right to request access to, to correct, or to delete any personal information that you have provided to us. We cannot delete your personal information except by also deleting your user account. We may not accommodate a request to change information if we believe the change would violate any law or legal requirement or cause the information to be incorrect.
Where you have provided your consent to the collection, use, and transfer of your personal information, you may have the legal right to withdraw your consent under certain circumstances. Please note that if you withdraw your consent we may not be able to provide you with a particular Service and you may not be able to participate in the Challenge. We will explain the impact to you at the time to help you with your decision.
You can make such a request, or to withdraw your consent, please email us at data@expop.io
Your State Privacy Rights: State consumer privacy laws may provide their residents with additional rights regarding our use of their personal information. California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Virginia provide (now or in the future) their state residents with rights to:
Confirm whether we process their personal information.
Access and delete certain personal information.
Correct inaccuracies in their personal information, considering the information's nature processing purpose (excluding Iowa and Utah).
Data portability.
Opt-out of personal data processing for:
targeted advertising (excluding Iowa);
sales/shares; or
profiling in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects (excluding Iowa and Utah).
Either limit (opt-out of) or require consent to process sensitive personal data.
The exact scope of these rights may vary by state. To exercise any of these rights please email us at data@expop.io.
Europe: For the purposes of European Economic Area data protection law, (the "Data Protection Law"), the data controller is: Ascendance US Inc., 169 Madison Ave STE 11804, New York, NY 10016
Use of Cookies: Our site places cookies on your device for a variety of purposes described in the Cookies and Other Technologies section of this privacy policy. Please refer to that section for more information about those cookies and how to prevent the use of cookies. If you have any questions about the cookies we set, please contact our Data Protection Officer at data@expop.io.
Data Storage: The data that we collect from you is transferred to, and may be stored at, a destination outside the European Economic Area ("EEA") that is not subject to equivalent Data Protection Law. For our purposes, the information we collect is processed and stored in the US.
We may transfer your personal information outside the EEA.
Where your information is transferred outside the EEA, we will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is subject to appropriate safeguards, such as relying on a recognized legal adequacy mechanism, and that it is treated securely and in accordance with this privacy policy.
European site users have certain rights under certain circumstances:
to be provided with a copy of your personal data held by us;
to request the rectification or erasure of your personal data held by us;
to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data (while we verify or investigate your concerns with this information, for example);
to object to the further processing of your personal data, including the right to object to marketing (as mentioned in 'our promotional updates and communications' section);
to request that your provided personal data be moved to a third party.
Your right to withdraw consent: Where the processing of your personal information by us is based on consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent without detriment. You can withdraw consent online or by contacting us. For more information on this or other options to manage your privacy rights, please see the Accessing or Correcting Your Information section of this privacy policy.
Changes to this Policy: We may amend this Privacy and Cookie Statement from time to time. Please check back regularly to review your rights and to check the Effective date or Last Updated date listed below. If we make any substantive changes to this policy, we’ll announce it on our site and notify you by email.
Malaysia: The Personal Data Protection Act 2010 (“PDPA”), supplemented by various regulations and industry specific codes of practice and standards issued pursuant thereto (collectively, the “PDPA”), applies to data processing of residents of Malaysia. For the purposes of the PDPA the data controller is: Ascendance US Inc., 169 Madison Ave STE 11804, New York, NY 10016.
Disclosures: The PDPA requires certain disclosures that are already covered in this privacy policy, including the types of personal data being processed by or on behalf of the data controller; the purposes for which the personal data is being or is to be collected and further processed; the source of personal data; the data subject's right to request access to and to request correction of the personal data and how to contact the data controller with any inquiries or complaints in respect of the personal data; the class of third parties to whom the data controller discloses or may disclose the personal data; the choices and means the data controller offers the data subject for limiting the processing of personal data; whether it is obligatory or voluntary for the data subject to supply the personal data; and where it is obligatory for the data subject to supply the personal data, the consequences for the data subject if he fails to supply the personal data. You may contact us via the information provided below should you need further clarification or additional information as to any such disclosures contained herein.
Rights: Pursuant to Section 6(2) and Section 40 of the PDPA, you have the right to be informed of the processing of your personal data, the right to determine whether or not to consent and the scope of such consent, the right to have your consent recorded and maintained, and the right to withdraw consent to the processing of your personal data.
Data Storage: The data that we collect from you is transferred to, and may be stored at, a destination outside of Malaysia. For our purposes, the information we collect is processed and stored in the US. Pursuant to Section 129 of the PDPA, where personal data may be transferred outside of Malaysia, we will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your personal data is subject to protection substantially similar to the requirements set forth by the PDPA.
National Language Requirement. As required by the PDPA, a version of this privacy policy in Bahasa Melayu is available.
Indonesia: Law No. 27 of 2022, the Personal Data Protection Law (the “PDP Law”) applies to data processing of residents of Indonesia. For the purposes of the PDPA the data controller is: Ascendance US Inc., 169 Madison Ave STE 11804, New York, NY 10016.
Disclosures: The PDP Law requires certain disclosures already included in this privacy policy, including, the legality/lawful basis of the personal data processing; the purpose of personal data processing; the type and relevance of the personal data to be processed; the retention period of documents containing personal data; the details regarding the information collected; the period of personal data processing; and the rights of the personal data subject.
Rights/requests: Pursuant to the PDP Law, you have the right to be informed of the processing of your personal data, the right to determine whether or not to consent and the scope of such consent, and the right to withdraw consent to the processing of your personal data. With regard to minors under the age of 18, Article 25 of the PDP Law states that a data controller shall obtain consent from the parent, guardian or person who has parental responsibility of the data subject prior to the processing of personal data. Moreover, pursuant to Government Regulation No. 17 of 2025 on the Governance of Electronic System Organization in Child Protection (“GR 17/2025”), we will obtain parental or guardian consent prior to allowing a minor to access the Platform. We will further ensure that the Platform is designated “High Privacy Level” and ensure that the personal data processed is at all times strictly necessary for the purposes defined herein. Finally, we will conduct Data Protection Impact Assessments (“DPIAs”) to determine the potential risks associated with minors’ use of the Platform.
Prohibitions: Pursuant to the GR 17/2025, we will not use personal data to profile minors by any means, including offering products or services, unless otherwise required to administer and facilitate the Challenge; implement covert or non-transparent methods, techniques, or practices which encourage children to provide or disclose personal data beyond what is necessary to use or access the Platform or release/reduce privacy protection functions of the system; or collect the precise geolocation information of minors
Vietnam: Law on Personal Data Protection No. 91/2025/QH15 (the “PDPL”) and Decree No. 13/2023/ND-CP of the Government dated 17 April 2023 on Personal Data Protection (“Decree 13”) (collectively, “Vietnam Data Privacy Laws”) applies to data processing of residents of Vietnam. For the purposes of the PDPL the data controller is: Ascendance US Inc., 169 Madison Ave STE 11804, New York, NY 10016.
Disclosures: The Vietnam Data Privacy Laws require certain disclosures that are already covered in this privacy policy, including the types of personal data being processed by or on behalf of the data controller; the purposes for which the personal data is being or is to be collected and further processed; the source of personal data; the data subject's right to request access to and to request correction of the personal data and how to contact the data controller with any inquiries or complaints in respect of the personal data; the class of third parties to whom the data controller discloses or may disclose the personal data; the choices and means the data controller offers the data subject for limiting the processing of personal data; whether it is obligatory or voluntary for the data subject to supply the personal data; and where it is obligatory for the data subject to supply the personal data, the consequences for the data subject if he fails to supply the personal data. You may contact us via the information provided below should you need further clarification or additional information as to any such disclosures contained herein.
Rights: Pursuant to Vietnam Data Privacy Laws, you have the right to be informed of the processing of your personal data, the right to determine whether or not to consent and the scope of such consent, the right to have your consent recorded and maintained, and the right to withdraw consent to the processing of your personal data.
Contact Us: Questions, comments, and requests regarding this privacy policy are welcomed and should be addressed to:
Data Privacy Officer
Ascendance Us Inc.
169 Madison Ave STE 11804, New York, NY 10016
If you believe the Challenge or the Platform has violated you or your children’s rights as defined herein, please submit a detailed report using the contact information above.